Keiichiro Toyama would not have failed to develop the new Siren (Forbidden Siren), but instead, he ended up with a brand new IP, Slitterhead.

Toyama told Denfaminicogamer that while he was working at PlayStation, he had a concept for a sequel to his popular game Siren, but that concept eventually evolved into the indie Slitterhead. His concept was planned with a bigger budget, and he originally wanted to make a AAA game, and one of his ideas ended up being Slitterhead, which obviously had to cut back on the budget a bit (?) because Toyama had already left Sony. But while he was still there, he saw that there was a lot of interest in Siren, and he wanted to take advantage of that. He didn’t think the horror style he loved to develop would work well in AAA titles…

Slitterhead was born out of the idea of “What if I made Siren 3? It all started when I was working at Sony Interactive Entertainment. At the time, Siren was experiencing a resurgence in popularity, so there was talk of making a Siren-related game. But the company wanted a AAA title. Recently, there have been more and more games labeled ‘horror,’ but I personally think that the horror genre and AAA game development don’t go well together,” Toyama said.

The first installment of Siren (released in Europe as Forbidden Siren) was released for the PS2 in 2003 (Japan; 2004 in the West). Toyama was the director and co-writer. Forbidden Siren 2 followed in 2006 (also for PS2; it was called Siren 2 in Japan, so it was renamed in North America), and it was also great. It was also directed by Toyama, so after the first Silent Hill, it wasn’t just the first part that was tied to it in a new IP.

So the franchise didn’t really get very far, and Toyama would have made a third part, but the failure to do so may have played a part in his departure from Sony.

Source: VGC, Denfaminicogamer